1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a content distribution method and content supply system that are to distribute content by live distribution using a distribution server that distributes content by streaming to clients.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a computer network system, an individual generally opens a homepage to provide created content over the Internet.
When a user personally opens a homepage, the user acquires a homepage creation program with a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”), creates a homepage hyper-linked with a plurality of content based on the homepage creation program and stores the homepage in a server of an Internet service provider (hereinafter referred to as “ISP”).
Then, the ISP provides the homepage to a client who has accessed it over the Internet from the server and when an anchor on the homepage is clicked, then the ISP provides linked content.
In recent years, contents to be supplied to clients over the Internet include many motion pictures and sounds in addition to still pictures. To provide content such as motion pictures, motion picture files and audio files created by the user are uploaded beforehand in a predetermined storage area in a streaming server of the ISP. Then, upon receiving a client's request, the streaming server of the ISP distributes corresponding files to the client by streaming over the Internet.
Furthermore, the technique of distributing content such as motion pictures to clients over the Internet includes a technique called “live distribution”, in addition to “on-demand distribution” whereby a motion picture file is uploaded in a streaming server beforehand and distributed in response to a request from a client as described above. In the live distribution, motion picture data created by a content creator, for example, using a digital camera, is encoded in real time and is sent to the streaming server over the Internet, etc. Then, the streaming server reproduces the motion picture data supplied in real time from the content creator while recording it in a dedicated storage area, and can thereby supply the motion picture data in real time to the requesting client.
On the other hand, when the above-described live distribution is performed, the content creator needs to send motion picture data to the streaming server in real time, and therefore a communication path must be secured to transmit the motion picture data between the streaming server and the PC, etc. of the content creator while live distribution is performed. Because of this, the number of content that can be distributed by the live-distribution using the streaming server at the same time is limited and there may be a problem that in a rush time zone, the content creator who has been preparing for live distribution in the time zone may not perform live distribution in that time zone.
In order to prevent such a problem and carry out live distributions by efficiently using the streaming server, the streaming server may be used based on a reservation system. However, the following problem may still occur even if the reservation system is adopted. That is, transmitting content such as motion picture data requires a transmission band of a certain size and if the amount of traffic on the network connecting the PC of the content creator to the streaming server increases during a live distribution, there may be a problem that it is not possible to secure the transmission band for content distribution on the network.